How Pastors Are Failing Their Churches

This past Sunday I was asked to preach for one of my clients that currently is without a pastor.  They wanted me to bring a stewardship message.  I preached a sermon entitled, “Recession Proof Your Life.”  Afterwards in talking with many of the leaders they remarked how it was the first sermon they had heard on giving in years.  While they loved their former pastor it appeared that he never preached on giving in all the years he was at the church.  Later in the day I told my father the comments I heard.  My father commented, “I can’t remember the last sermon I heard on giving.  Preachers just don’t preach on it any more.  How is the next generation going to learn about giving if preachers don’t preach on it?”  Good point.

There are many reasons why I believe most pastors never broach the subject of money.  I have had pastors brag to me about how little they preach on giving.  To me if you do not have a consistent preaching emphasis every year on giving you are not preaching the whole counsel of God.  You are succumbing to the pressures of the world.  You are building not a church filled with disciples but a water down version of the Gospel.  Giving and discipleship go hand in hand.  Jesus called us to make disciples not build attendance.  In failing to preach consistently on stewardship pastors are failing their churches.

Why should you preach on stewardship?

1.    It’s biblical!  Jesus talked more about money than any other subject.  Don’t let a few people talk you out of preaching the whole counsel of God.  Jesus talked about it so much because he understood its power upon the lives of people.  It truly is the god and idol of our age.

Consider that the New Testament has about…

• 500 verses on faith
• 500 verses on prayer
• Over 1,000 verses on giving
• 19 of Jesus 38 parables deal with giving
• 1/10 of the book of Matthew deals with stewardship and giving!

If the Bible talks about it so much why are you not preaching on it?

2.     It brings results.  George Barna in his book “How to Increase Giving in Your Church,” found that churches in which pastors preach…

• Single messages about giving raise more money than do churches in which no stewardship takes place.
• Two or more nonconsecutive messages do not have any advantage over churches that only preach on stewardship once a year.
• Two or more consecutive messages about stewardship raise more money than do those churches that only hear one message a year.
• Churches in which pastors preach two or more consecutive messages about stewardship matters raise significantly more money than churches that hear two or more nonconsecutive stewardship messages.
• A series on giving is nearly two and a half times more likely to experience an increase in giving than preachers who only talk about stewardship once a year or on two non consecutive times in a year.

These are pretty convincing facts.  In light of this do you not think that as you lay out your yearly preaching plan that a series on stewardship might be warranted?  It is not that churches preach too much about money, they actually preach too little on the topic.  If you truly want to make disciples then preach the whole counsel of God.  That includes messages on giving.  Not only will you make disciples you just might make the budget!

Mark Brooks

Founder and President

The Charis Group